FROM

What one Calgary Stampede official described as a routine run turned
tragic yesterday -- a steer was euthanized at the afternoon rodeo
performance.

The animal was carried out of the arena on a stretcher after being taken
to the ground by steer wrestler Joey Bell Jr. of Athens, Texas.

Stampede spokesman Doug Fraser said the animal sustained a "serious
spinal injury" and was euthanized, a rare occurrence during a
steer-wrestling competition.

"It's only anecdotal, but the fact of the matter is I've been watching
rodeo for 30 years and I've never seen this," Fraser said. "It's extremely
rare."

It's the third time an animal has been euthanized during the latest
installment of the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth, but the first incident in
the rodeo arena. The others were chuckwagon horses.

In the steer-wrestling competition, the cowboys chase animals out of the
chutes on horseback, then hit the dirt and use both arms -- grabbing a horn
with their right hand and sliding their left arm underneath the steer's jaw
-- to roll their assignment onto its side.

Bell, a bulldogging veteran who boasts more than $650,000 US in career
earnings, caught up to his steer in a hurry yesterday, but struggled to
wrestle the animal to the ground.

He eventually clocked a time of 8.9 seconds, finishing out of the money.

Cowboy

When the six-foot-four, 220-pound cowboy stood up, the steer didn't
spring back to its feet. After trying to help the animal up, Bell laid the
steer back on its side.

Officials hustled into the infield and, after blocking the view of
spectators with a black tarp, carried the steer away on a stretcher. Bell
was among those who helped carry the animal out of the infield.

Before the steer was euthanized, the veteran cowboy said the animal
likely suffered a pinched nerve.

"It could've been my knee or my back just as well as it could've been
his," Bell said. "It's just one of those unfortunate things that happens.
You'd like to say it never happens, but when you've got animals involved,
it's just like people. It happens in football when a person runs into
another person.

"They're bigger, stronger, faster than we are, and it's just one of them
unfortunate things that does happen."

Fraser said the animal was treated for what was suspected to be a
"soft-tissue swelling injury" but was eventually euthanized after further
examination showed the severity of the injury.

Calgary's Lee Graves, a former world champion steer wrestler who is also
competing at the Stampede, said he was "shocked" the animal had died.

"I've had two knee surgeries and I get hurt more than the steers do," he
said.

An official with the Alberta SPCA, which oversees the barns, refused
comment on the grounds last night.

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